Silicon Valley

At Paleyfest, the cast and crew of the HBO series said Season 5 will directly address topics like gender equality and the tech industry's treatment of women. Kumail Nanjiani said in Season 5, “there is a plot that goes over a couple of episodes later in the season that does talk about that (#MeToo) movement, not directly, but what that movement is about is definitely tackled.” Co-star Zach Woods adds that “It’s hopefully not too on the nose, but that informs some of the plots in the middle of the season.” During the panel, the cast and crew also addressed the exit of T.J. Miller, with executive producer Alec Berg comparing it to the difficulty of redirecting the show after the death of Christopher Evan Welch following Season 1. ALSO: Mike Judge says he was taken aback by criticism that there weren't enough females.

At times, the comedian showed up "seemingly under the influence, if he showed up at all," reports The Hollywood Reporter, adding that Miller would fall asleep between takes and his behavior caused schedules to be rejiggered. "There was almost a danger to having him around,” said one insider. "He was explosive, and there were moments where you'd go, 'Whoa, that's not where I thought that was going at all, but that was f*cking awesome' … but it was a trade-off." Creator Mike Judge added that "it's not fun to work with someone who doesn't want to be there." Asked to respond, Miller said: “In real life, I’m not always high like Erlich is. And this will blow your readers’ minds, but I’m not high when I work because it gets in the way of the comedy. I also am not a guy who’s blackout drunk, bumping into things on set. … What was occurring was I was out doing stand-up all the time, even if it meant I only got three hours of sleep. So, the thing I have a problem with? It’s pushing myself to do too much.” Meanwhile, the showrunner says Miller's exit gives the show a clean slate to work with, especially since "T.J. wasn't LeBron."

The HBO comedy has dropped a two-minute Season 5 official trailer, featuring an image of binary numbers that, when translated, offers would could be described as "the hidden meaning of the entire series."

“I think that’s the tricky thing with all this stuff,” Middleditch said in an interview with The A.V. Club. “Speaking as a guy, as a man, as a male human, it’s kind of scary, with this fervor that’s surrounding it, where an allegation can just pop up and then it’s really incumbent upon you to fervently defend your character. I’m not gonna dive into what’s real or not. I’m just saying it’s a little bit scary.” He adds: “I mean, I thought the whole Aziz Ansari thing was kind of absurd. Like, there’s a difference between assault and just kind of strange sex.” As for Miller's decision to leave the HBO comedy, Middleditch says: “No one wants to be either on a show that they’re kind of ready to move on from, or around someone who’s on a show that they are ready to move on from."

The 1985 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis about a British man of Pakistani descent and his white boyfriend who run a laundromat in London is set to be remade as a TV series, with Silicon Valley executive producer Alec Berg on board as well as Traffic writer Stephen Gaghan. So far, no network is attached.

After this morning's report of Miller’s alleged college sexual misconduct surfaced, adult star Dana DeArmond tweeted that she was harassed by Miller and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts on the set of the Comedy Central show Mash Up.

The cancelation after one season comes hours after The Daily Beast revealed that the former Silicon Valley star was accused in college of sexually assaulting and punching a female student while at George Washington University in 2001. A Comedy Central rep tells The Hollywood Reporter the cancelation decision was made before this morning's story. Miller and his wife, Kate Gorney, released a statement denying the anonymous woman’s allegations, saying that she “was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus ‘I’m going to destroy them’ & ‘I’m going to ruin him.’”

Rumors of Miller’s past behavior have been “buzzed about in Hollywood and stand-up circles for years,” reports Asawin Suebaseng. Now the accuser is coming forward, albeit anonymously, to speak to The Daily Beast in detail about her alleged experiences with Miller at George Washington University, which were addressed by a student court. Miller, for his part, says the accuser “is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again.”

Wheeler is “the laziest dad on television, and thus he is my favorite character on the show by far,” says Drew Magary in his annual GQ list. “I aspire to give so few f*cks. He’s the best. I want a spinoff show where Mr. Wheeler just spends every episode reading his paper and being left alone.” As for Miller, Magary says, “you gotta be a real turd to get fired from one of the biggest comedies on TV despite being the best thing on it. But hoo boy, was T. J. Miller up to the task. He proved to be every bit as insufferable as Erlich Bachman was on that show, only with none of the charm. He trashed showrunner Alec Berg. He deliberately acted like an a**hole to ‘infect’ the news cycle. Oh, and he starred in The Emoji Movie, which makes him 2017’s greatest monster.”

In a tweetstorm Wednesday, the HBO star expressed concern that the real Silicon Valley doesn’t even care about the ethical implications of their work. “As a cast member on a show about tech, our job entails visiting tech companies/conferences etc,” he tweeted. “We meet ppl eager to show off new tech. Often we'll see tech that is scary. I don't mean weapons etc. I mean altering video, tech that violates privacy, stuff w obv ethical issues. And we'll bring up our concerns to them. We are realizing that ZERO consideration seems to be given to the ethical implications of tech. They don't even have a pat rehearsed answer. They are shocked at being asked. Which means nobody is asking those questions.”

Leaving the hit HBO series was “the least anticipated move I can make,” says Miller, who was prompted to exit in response to the presidential election. Besides, Miller would rather do standup comedy: “It’s the only way to reach an audience without any sort of censor or filter... Silicon Valley was a very good experience for me — I’m fortunate to have been part of something that was a cultural touchstone,” he said. “But talking about Silicon Valley became irrelevant after something very big happened.”